To expand on the topic of user-results-focused approach, two data points people are constantly looking to interpret and understand:
- What is the map?
- Where am I on the map?
Combined, they create the impetus for most of the conversations in business past, present, and possibly future. Because the root of the questions is purely human. It is the backdrop that informs and influences behavior.
Building on this concept with current real world examples.
The Internet of things
Beyond the conversation about everything being connected, there are real world application of how it would be helpful to have that connection in place.
Just this past week, we lost an airplane. A Boeing 777-200 carrying no less than 239 people, prompting news articles and official inquiries left and right. Meanwhile, the families of the missing await to learn their fate.
Connectivity, in this case the ability to retrieve black box data in a timely manner, would indeed have real world applications beyond figuring out who else is on the place to network with, to learning where the plane went and potentially getting early signals that something was not going as well as it should.
Adam Tinworth says it this way: in the new normal connectivity is not a toy#.
The ability to communicate with devices in a timely manner in this case, becomes easy access for people to retrieve information about rescue and recovery in another, or get connected with resources and family in a time of disaster.
Take on the cognitive load of needing to coordinate disparate resources across several organizations, conduct lengthy search and investigation missions, maybe organize volunteers, all by helping direct people, and make connections as to what happened.
Consumer-related applications of the Internet of Things are seemingly coming faster, or at least written up more#, than infrastructure-type services. Is the chatter about this limited view limiting to the development of the broader infrastructure?
Where are we on that (road)map?
Big data just got huge
I just reviewed a business performance software that brings together data management, planning, reporting and analytics in a simple, powerful, SaaS platform built by marketers, for marketers.
Beckon is designed to take on the metrics cognitive load by uptaking and normalizing data across disparate marketing reporting tools and programs and presenting it as one report. In other words, to put it in user-results-focused terms: to make the CMO badass.
Now he can see which channels provide a lift, how they play next to each other and decide what KPIs and reports best support marketing goals for business performance -- in other words, what is the map?
Once enough data has been collected and normalized across industries, the platform will be able to help with -- where am I on the map? The reason why we benchmark.
[Disclosure: PM Digital has a working relationship with Beckon.]
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Valeria is an experienced listener. She designs service and product experiences to help businesses rediscover the value of promises and its effects on relationships and culture. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. Book her to speak here.